marc tressard
Rookie
Apparently the dead rubber at MSG, NY (and Asia) is sold out! Meanwhile, most ATP, WTA tournaments witness an embarrassingly high percentage of empty seats up to the final, and the pro season ending championships left this same MSG for Doha and Shanghai. This tells me that the sport can only thrive when fans see elite stars in mano a mano confrontations, not Querrey v. Anderson or Nishikori v. Blake or Darcis v. Soderling and so on.
So let’s harken back to the days when Emerson was winning all those slams while the elite pros were barnstorming. Having elite players facing off regularly rather than a few times a year is what the sport needs. Fewer but more meaningful events. The season may officially begin down ender on January 1, but let’s face it, it REALLY begins with Indian Wells in mid March, and not everyone shows up there either!
Taking nothing away from these other fine players, who really cares that Llodra and Almagro have won two tournaments this year? No US TV outlet even bothered with the ATP Dubai this year! What does that tell you?
Indeed, the Star Wars copoly string and technologically inspired rackets are orders of magnitude superior, the players are bigger and far fitter, but, alas, tennis has slipped into the doldrums wherein most men’s and women’s events, let’s face it, mean nothing even to most tennis fans! We have a frightful situation where top players rarely face off because they seldom play the same non slam tournaments, blow off events, are injured or sadly uninterested (Williamses etc). #1 Henin plays two matches in Doha and then disappears for 3 weeks etc. WTA: “Henin hasn’t played Serena in three years on a hardcourt etc. We’ll be lucky if Roger and Novak square off twice more this season. Do you think R-Fed and Nalbandian will face off twice year?
So pro tennis, please get your act together before there is no act left.
So let’s harken back to the days when Emerson was winning all those slams while the elite pros were barnstorming. Having elite players facing off regularly rather than a few times a year is what the sport needs. Fewer but more meaningful events. The season may officially begin down ender on January 1, but let’s face it, it REALLY begins with Indian Wells in mid March, and not everyone shows up there either!
Taking nothing away from these other fine players, who really cares that Llodra and Almagro have won two tournaments this year? No US TV outlet even bothered with the ATP Dubai this year! What does that tell you?
Indeed, the Star Wars copoly string and technologically inspired rackets are orders of magnitude superior, the players are bigger and far fitter, but, alas, tennis has slipped into the doldrums wherein most men’s and women’s events, let’s face it, mean nothing even to most tennis fans! We have a frightful situation where top players rarely face off because they seldom play the same non slam tournaments, blow off events, are injured or sadly uninterested (Williamses etc). #1 Henin plays two matches in Doha and then disappears for 3 weeks etc. WTA: “Henin hasn’t played Serena in three years on a hardcourt etc. We’ll be lucky if Roger and Novak square off twice more this season. Do you think R-Fed and Nalbandian will face off twice year?
So pro tennis, please get your act together before there is no act left.
